Delhi on boil as feels-like temperature touches 49°C; 'orange' alert for today and tomorrow; AQI deteriorates
New Delhi: The national capital sweltered as unbearably hot and humid weather gripped the region on Monday, with the city witnessing the hottest day this summer and parts of it recording a heatwave.
While the peak temperature reached 45.5 degrees Celsius at IGNOU and 45.3 degrees at Ayanagar, Delhi's heat index, or the "feels-like" temperature due to the humidity, was 49 degrees Celsius.
At the base weather station Safdarjung, the maximum temperature was 43.4 degrees Celsius, three notches above normal. On May 16, the maximum temperature reached 42.3 degrees Celsius, now the second highest this summer. Among other hot areas, Ridge recorded 44.9 degrees Celsius, Palam 44.3, Lodhi Road 43.3 and Najafgarh 42.4.
The Met department has forecast a heatwave warning until Wednesday, expecting the maximum temperature to be 43-45 degrees Celsius. Hot and dry westerly dust-raising winds will spike the discomfort. The humidity on Monday oscillated between 25% and 70%.
"With Hisar, Sirsa, Rohtak and Ayanagar reporting more than 44.9 degrees Celsius, heatwave conditions were realised over Haryana-Chandigarh-Delhi for the second day," said Krishna Mishra, weather scientist at India Meteorological Department.
Despite the region receiving arid winds from the west, moisture lingered, thus worsening the heat index.
The Met has issued an orange alert for a heatwave on Tuesday and Wednesday as well. However, it also expects a quick respite later this week with the possibility of rain, making it a week of severe fluctuations in weather patterns. A large area of northwest India continued to sizzle, including Haryana, western and eastern Punjab, with mercury touching 46 degrees Celsius in areas like Ludhiana.
Parts of J&K also witnessed a heatwave for the past two days.
Issuing a yellow alert, IMD said Thursday would see hot and humid conditions. Light rain and thundershowers are likely, with temperatures hovering around 42-44 degrees Celsius. However, proper respite is expected from June 13. "Between June 4 and 9, the city saw an 11-degree rise in temperature," said Mishra. A fall in temperature is expected from June 13 due to moisture-laden winds coming from the southwest from Arabian Sea and southeast winds from Bay of Bengal.
The sudden rise in temperature poses risks, especially for Delhi. "As per a recent CEEW study on the heat risk index, the north Indian region showed an increase in relative humidity (about 6-9%) in the past decade... When heat and humidity are combined, the felt heat can be, on average, 3-5 degrees more than dry heat. This puts Delhi in the list of the top 10 districts facing high and very high heat risk in India," said Vishwas Chitale, senior programme lead at CEEW.
Meanwhile, the city's air quality deteriorated due to a spike in coarser particles. The average air quality index on Monday was 235 (poor) against 198 (moderate) a day earlier. PM10 and Ozone were the day's lead pollutants.
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